Imagine a place where a fast-train travels at 300+ km/hr and takes you from the airport to the main metro stations in 7 minutes. A city where over 2 million people (or more?) a day travel on the subway and trains arrive at stations very 3 minutes. Sounds impossible, but this exists in Shanghai.
When we arrived in Shanghai, we caught the Maglev train from Pudong airport to metro station. From there we caught another train to People's Square and then from there a cab to our hotel. Although we got the taxi there on our last leg from People's Square to the hotel, our first trip on Shanghai's public transport was impressive.
The airport terminal joins up to the Maglev (magnetic levitation) train terminal. It's a seamless transition with easy signage everywhere telling you in English and Madarin where to go. You can see the "Maglev" signage in the above pic. We arrived at around 6-7pm and were able to find it really easily.
You can imagine how hard it is normally to travel with luggage, and we had about 6 pieces of luggage between us, but although the metro has some stairs to negotiate, you take the lift if you can't find an escalator. It was actually much much easier than I expected. So much so that when Matt left Shanghai, and when my mum & I needed to catch the plane to Beijing, we used the metro and the Maglev back to PuDong International Airport. No taxi, more luggage, but still a lot smoother than expected.
The above pic was taken by my mum who humours my idiotic behaviour. My husband ignored me while other tourists giggled or rolled their eyes. The Maglev was travelling at 300km/hr and I thought that was pretty cool. Although in my head, I kept thinking "88 miles per hour!!!" and wishing it was actually a DeLorean.
Once we settled into the location, we bought the 3 day metro pass and irrespective of the number of stops, it's a fixed price, so it's definitely worth it for the walkabout tourist. And the 3 day pass starts working from the moment you purchase it, and stops 72 hours after the purchase time! That's just magic for the budget-conscious (read tight-arse) traveller like me. You can also get a 1-day pass but as we were in Shanghai for 8nights, the 3-day was the best option for us.
The pass is just a plastic card that you place on the automatic station "gates". Getting a 3-day pass will save you time, so you won't have to buy a ticket each time you want to go to a certain stop. The lines can be really busy at peak periods, so if you're gonna be in Shanghai for 2-3 days, just get a pass to save you the hassle as it lets you go through unlimited stops for 72 hours from purchase time.
We used the train ticket everyday, changing lines, detouring along the way. We even used it to get to the water township Zhu Jia Jiao, which is literally at the end of the line (East Xujing Station). Ah, the metro pass was the gift that just kept on giving.
Glass doors keep the commuters safe when they wait at the stations, and only open when a train pulls up. The kid you see on the above photo would be toying with death if he was running along the platform at a station back home. One false step and he'd be on the tracks. With the glass doors, and a countdown to the next train (3 minute intervals), we never felt uncomfortable or lost, knowing that we'd always be able to back-track really quickly and using our 3-day passes.
The metro was so easy to grasp. The only fiddly part we worked out was that on the English translated metro map, instead of "Dashijie", it said "Great World" which was the literal translation, which confused us. But we worked it out and we went everywhere by metro.
Metro stop signs are in Mandarin and English. Each platform has signed listed all along the platform telling you where you are, what the next stop is, and what the subsequent line stops are…so it's easy to figure out where you're going. Each stop is also announced on the train. eg. The pic above shows we're at "Dashijie" and going to "People's Square".
Tips:
Tourist info places in Shanghai all have maps and metro maps for English-speakers. So grab one and test it out! Just watch out for "Dashijie" being called "Great World" cos "Great World" doesn't exist!
All metro stations ask you to place your bags on an x-ray machine before entering the station as a security check. A lot of people/ locals do not follow this rule but we thought we should…except for this one time when it was peak period and we had to rush somewhere. The guards weren't angry at all, maybe we were lucky, but they had obviously not been listened to by a big group of locals ahead of us. And when we travelled to the airport with a huge amount of luggage, one of the guards actually helped us with the bags and waved through the last 3 bags. Nice guard. So up to you whether you want to follow the rule or not, but suggest you do as a polite gesuture. Just get your bag ready before you get to "gates".
Smartphone app tip – get the Shanghai Metro app for your smartphone if you have one. It's an absolute gem telling you how long it would take you to get to your destination stop, what lines to change and where.
Do not take a taxi unless absolutely necessary in Shanghai. ie. If the metro is shut, or you're there on business and want to go door to door to avoid stress, but give yourself plenty of time. Traffic is bad, and the metro is a fantastic alternative.
Not to mention the amount of local "life" you will see…workers from the rural areas, shoppers from outside Shanghai buying goods to resell, workers to and from jobs, kids enjoying the weekend and couples sneaking some public displays of affection.
Public toilets in train stations are surprisingly good. Just bring your own tissues or toilet paper.
Shanghai Metro, it was an absolute pleasure getting to know you. 🙂